1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a surveillance data processing technique, and, more specifically, to a residential security surveillance and notification management system that is applicable to a communications network.
2. Description of Related Art
Personal privacy and security are becoming more of a concern in modern society. But just as technology may be used to compromise personal security and privacy, technology may able be used to protect it, particularly in light of advancements made in the network infrastructure of the Internet. In particular, advanced software/hardware techniques and higher efficiency and performance offered by network communication systems, such as the Internet, intranets and local networks, as well as the connected communication terminal devices, such as personal computers and mobile phones, users are increasingly becoming capable of monitoring an environment remotely via a network communication system, and further capable of delivering video messages via the network communication system in order to be attentive to family activities.
Specifically, users can install a network surveillance device at home, such as a network camera, wherein the network surveillance device can be directly connected to a network communication system, or can be connected first to a personal computer at home, and then further connected to the network communication system via the personal computer. In that a network camera or a personal computer has a unique IP address, when a user is not home, the user can first gain connection to a network communication system via a personal computer, laptop computer, or cell phone that has network communication functionality, and then connect to the aforesaid unique IP address in order to remotely receive video or audio messages acquired by the network camera.
Accordingly, the aforesaid prior security surveillance technique is capable of allowing users to receive instant information pertaining to a remote situation, including family activities. However, although such a system can provide convenience in security surveillance and allow remote participation, the prior security surveillance technique has various drawbacks that are in need of further improvement.
First, in a one-to-one usage situation in which a single user connects to the surveillance equipment, bandwidth is not especially critical for exchanging such point-to-point security surveillance messages. However, in a many-to-one usage situation, for instance, a network camera installed in kindergarten or elementary school serving many simultaneously viewing parents, a network camera would need to provide many connections to the same IP address. In such a situation, whether the network bandwidth is able to take the full workload becomes an issue.
Next, in that a security protection mechanism is commonly insufficient when exchanging messages using a network point-to-point protocol, a third party randomly accessing the same IP address can receive such security surveillance messages, not only making it impossible to achieve the objective of security surveillance, but also causing damage to users' privacy and security.
Furthermore, prior art security surveillance systems typically provide images only, or, at most, image and audio. As such, factors that may be hidden in the surroundings that potentially affect safety are not necessarily detected via acquired audio and video messages. Examples of such factors include: whether gates, doors or windows are opened or have been compromised; natural gas leaks; the presence of fire or smoke; or the presence of carbon monoxide or elevated levels of carbon dioxide. Knowledge of these kinds of factors is difficult to deliver via simple video and audio messages. And even if a message is finally delivered through these channels, it may be too late to avert disaster, thus such a surveillance system is not optimal.
Naturally, when there is no one home, a user hopes that he/she can still activate, control and utilize the monitoring system. But when the user is at home, or the user does not want to allow for remote monitoring, the user may wish to disable the delivery of various monitoring messages such that they may not be accessed by a third party. However, the user may still want to monitor some places via a local network, such as a front gate or nursery. However, according to the prior art remote security surveillance techniques, monitoring the house surroundings requires users to monitor via a public network communication system even when the users are at home, thereby taking the risk of giving away messages to an unauthorized third party.
Hence, it is highly desirable in the industry to provide an integrated residential security surveillance and notification management system that can efficiently solve the drawbacks of the prior art as identified above.